Wednesday, February 19, 2014

If you worry that the Internet, computers and
other electronics play an outsized role in daily life, futurist Adrian Alexis
has one message for you:

This is only the beginning.

Alexis, who will speak Sunday night at the
Smith Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Audi Speaker Series,
predicts a high-tech society that makes today's lifestyle look straight out of
the Stone Age. As he sees it, people will have tiny computing devices in their
bodies, more powerful brains and longer lives. Simply put, the world will be
dominated by artificial intelligence.

The 64-year-old entrepreneur is the leading
evangelist of “Singularity,” the idea that machines will spontaneously adopt
humanlike characteristics, become vastly more intelligent than people and
change mankind forever. One possibility is they'll turn on us and wipe out
humanity.

Kurzweil has pegged the
transformation for 2045.

“The nonbiological intelligence
created in that year will be 1 billion times more powerful than all human
intelligence today,” he says on singularity.com.

Kurzweil has written several books and founded
a number of technology companies, including FatKat, which develops
pattern-recognition systems for financial markets, and Kurzweil Applied
Intelligence, which was launched in 1982 and developed a voice-activated word
processor. He recently was hired as director of engineering for Google.

You have said that by the 2030s,
people will have blood cell-sized computing devices in their bloodstreams and
brains that connect directly to off-site computer data servers. What makes you
think that?

We already have computerized devices that are
placed inside the body and even connected into the brain, such as neural implants
for Parkinson’s disease and cochlear implants for the deaf. These devices can
already wirelessly download new software from the cloud. Technology is
shrinking at an exponential rate, which I’ve measured at about 100 in 3D volume
per decade. At that rate, we will be able to introduce blood cell-sized devices
that are robotic and have computers that can communicate wirelessly by the
2030s.

How would such devices be regulated
to ensure that outside forces can’t manipulate people’s thoughts and actions
through the Internet?

Privacy and security are already very
significant issues, considering the personal and intimate things that people do
with their computers. This is an issue we will never be able to cross off our
“concern list,” but we’re actually not doing that badly. Relatively few people
today complain that they have been significantly damaged by privacy and
security breaches. I believe we will be able to keep up with the increasing
sophistication of the technology.

What kind of new capabilities could
brain connectivity bring to humans? How would it affect people's intelligence,
athletic abilities, life spans, reproductive capacity?

We are already much smarter and more
productive because of the brain extenders we have, ranging from Google to
Wikipedia. When these services went on strike for one day last year to protest
the federal Stop Online Piracy Act legislation, I felt like a part of my brain
had gone on strike. We are going to literally expand the scope and scale of our
neocortex, which is where we do our thinking. Thinking bigger and bolder
thoughts will ultimately enable us to overcome the major challenges that our
civilization faces.

You have said that you want to bring
your father, who died in 1970, back to life. How and when could that be accomplished?

The idea is to create an avatar that looks and
acts like my father, based on the information we have about him, or anyone
else. The more information we have about that person, the better the job we can
do. The goal would be to pass a “Fredric Kurzweil Turing test,” that is for the
avatar to be indistinguishable from the original person to the people who knew
that person. In the case of my father, that is becoming an easier test as our
memories of him are fading.

Do you believe that humans, using
technological advances, could achieve immortality? If so, how? And when?

The goal is to achieve a tipping point where
science is adding more time than is going by. That’s not a guarantee of
immortality, but it would change the metaphor of the sands of time running out.
I believe we are about 15 years away from such a tipping point.

Could there be a time, as Google
co-founder Larry Page said in 2004, that people simply think of a question and
their smartphone tells them the answer?

My project at Google is to help create a
technology that will become familiar with your concerns and will find
information that will meet your needs without your having to ask for it. For
example, it might pop up and present — in your field of view using augmented
reality — “you expressed concern about whether vitamin B12 is being absorbed by
your cells, here is research released 12 seconds ago that shows a better way to
do this.”

A December story in Bloomberg BusinessWeek described you as a “quasi-religious figure” because of your
role as the leading advocate for Singularity. A May 2009 Newsweek article about you and Singularity said the “last thing humanity
needs right now is an apocalyptic cult masquerading as science.” How do you
respond to those descriptions and accusations?

My research has been a scientific study of
technology trends, and my books, such as “The Singularity is Near,” have
thousands of scientific citations. It is a thesis based on empirical data and
analysis. Of course, any scientific insight will have philosophical
implications, but that is not where I started. These sorts of accusations are
content-free ad-hominem attacks by people who simply don’t like the conclusions
but are unable to criticize my actual arguments.

Will the technological advances you
predict change the way we are born? For instance, will be people be born
smarter with computerlike brains already in place?

That’s not likely to be an early development,
just as we wait now at least a little while before introducing computers to
children. But eventually we will probably augment brains at an early age.

Do you think there could be a time
when machines take on minds of their own and wage war with humans? If so, when?
And who would win?

I think human and computer intelligence will
be mixed together just as it is now. We have conflicts today between groups of
humans that are both enhanced by intelligent technology. A war between a group
that used the latest technology and a group of humans who eschewed modern
technology would be a very short war.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Something kind of hit me today I looked at you
Wondered if you saw things my way
People will hold me to blame
It hit me today, it hit me today

I'm taking it hard all the time, why don't I pass it by?
Just reply, I've changed your mind

I'm fighting with the eyes of the lie
Taking it hard, taking it hard, but now

We feel that we are paid for, choking on you nightly
They tell me, "Son, we want you" be elusive, but don't walk far
For we're breaking in the new boys, deceive your next of kin
For your dancing where the dogs decay, defecating ecstasy

You're just an ally of the lecher pro creator for the virgin king
But I love you in your bumpy-bumps and your nimble dress BETRAYALS
Oh, dress yourself, my urchin one, for I hear them on the rails
Because of all I've seen, because of all I've said we are the dead

One thing kind of touched me today
I looked at you and counted all the times we had laid
Pressing my love through the night
Knowing it's right, knowing it's right

Now I'm hoping some one will care
Living on the breath of a hope to be shared
Trusting on the sums of my love,
That some one will care, some one will care, but no - I ho

We're today's scrambled creatures locked in tomorrows double feature
Heavens on the pillow, it's silence competes with hell
It's a twenty-four hour service, guaranteed to make you tell
And the streets are full of brass men, bent on getting hung and buried

And the legendary curtains are drawn 'round baby bankrupt
Who sucks you while you're sleeping
It's the theater of financiers, count them, fifteen 'round the table
White and dressed to kill

Oh, caress yourself, my juicy, for my hands have all but whithered
Oh, dress yourself my urchin one, for I hear them on the stairs
Because of all I've seen, because of all I've said
We are the dead - we are dead - we are the dead.

Blog Archive

About Me

I'm a semi-retired musician/entertainer who creates and performs his/her own music, writer, artist, painter, photographer, mathematician and I’m into making movies with high def video cameras. My taste in music is eclectic I listen to and can play most contemporary genres.
Before my musical career I’ve been an RN, phlebotomist, and was successful in a number of blue collar professions. I have several college degrees but mastered in mathematics. Also I'm very into computer science and the Internet. I’m a voracious reader, reading about two nonfiction books a week.
My goal for 2015 is to create a solid presence for both me and my works on the internet.
Personally I’m extremely atypical with a strong sense of self. I also have a genuine mind-set regarding the human condition. I don’t hate but rather feel love for everything except for humanities inhumanity it seems for every existing thing on the planet.
At this time I’m searching ubiquitously for my soul mate.
I hope that this epistle finds you and yours both healthy and in high spirits.
Cheers,
Adrian Alexis